Neo-Shifters: The Beginning
|director(s) = Jamie Lowe|producer(s) = Isamu Ueno|production_companies = Vlokfilm |distributor = RGN Productions (Vlokozu Union) Warner Bros. (International)|rating(s) = M (El Kadsre)|language = English|running_time = 125 minutes|budget = $70 million ($198 million in 2017 dollars)|box_office = $294 million ($833 million in 2017 dollars)|image1 = Neoshiftersthebeginning.png|caption1 = Theatrical release poster|composer(s) = }} Neo-Shifters: The Beginning '''(also known as '''Neo-Shifters: Episode Zero) is a 1985 Vlokuzuian-American-New Zealander science-fiction action tokusatsu superhero film. The film later spawned a television series Neo-Shifters, which ran from 1985 to 1988. Plot For thousands of years, two fractions of the shape-shifting alien robots known as "neo-shfiters", the heroic Paladins and the villainous Templars waged in the civil war over the sources of water. This was until the point where both fractions have been reduced to scavenging for water and the Paladins leave their home planet with their spaceship and the Templars follow them in their vessel and successfully boarded the Paladin ship. A battle breaks out in the ship while nobody is controlling the ship, the ship crashes into Roswell in planet Earth, leaving everyone in the ship unconscious. 38 years after the crash, Quinn Foster (Ivanson), a grown-up man living with his mother (Cher), his stepdad (Albano) and his stepbrother (Peyton), who likes to hang out with his friends who are his childhood friend Takehiro (Kayos) and his love interest Lise (Hershey) other than spending time with his family. The next day, they encountered a Paladin who is looking for sources of water in the Vloksville quarry. However, the Templars arrived at the quarry, starting the battle between them. While Quinn, Takehiro and Lise try to drive through the battlefield, they were captured by the Templar ship, later to be shot down by a Paladin, causing to drop a car into the ground, leaving them unconscious. When Quinn woke up, he found out Takehiro and Lise are missing and he later got beamed by a Paladin ship while he is trying to find Takehiro and Lise. Cast * Ben Ivanson as Quinn Foster/Magna::Rex * Andrew Kayos as Takehiro Nakahara/Atlas::Raan * Lise Hershey as Ashlee Collins * Shouhei Fujita as Nova::Vor * Gabe Hayter as Delta::Tek * Nori Matsuoka as Cozma::Tor * Takumi Yamauchi as Blaze<>Axx * Lou Albano as Donnie Ford * Cher as Gail Foster * Jerrold Peyton as Sam Ford Production Neo-Shifters was Regal Group Network's attempt to succeed financially by exploiting the success of Bionicle, as RGN's popularity dropped after the theartical release of Quest for the Masks in 1981. Filming Neo-Shifters: The Beginning was filmed from March 23 to July 21, 1984. Unlike Bionicle V, which had a combination of stop-motion animation and computer-graphics animation, Neo-Shifters only had stop-motion animation, which was done by over 50 people and it took 6 months to complete. Some of the stop motion models were later reused in some Bionicle projects (albeit repainted and altered) due to the El TV Kadsre-RGN partnership deal of the time. It was filmed in Capulco, the Vloksville quarry, the Wats Lake basin and the spaceship interiors and operation rooms were filmed in Warner Bros. Studios in California. Soundtrack Neo-Shifters was scored by American composer John Williams. The ending credits theme, The Shifter from Space, was co-written by Rylan Forester and recorded by the Norwegian pop-music group A-ha, which can be heard on the Vlokozuian version of A-ha's debut album, Hunting High and Low. Release Neo-Shifters: The Beginning was released in theaters less than a month after the similar tokusatsu film Bionicle V: Web of Shadows. Neo-Shifters: The Beginning ''grossed $63 million in its opening weekend in the Vlokozuian movie market, second on the charts behind ''Bionicle V: Web of Shadows. It grossed $294 million that year making it Warner Bros' most highest grossing film, putting The Goonies into second place. Neo-Shifters: The Beginning ''was first released on VHS, Betamax, Laserdisc and TVD by RGN Home Video in November 1985 while it was released in North America and Europe by Warner Home Video on January 1986 and released in Australia by Roadshow Home Video in March 1986. Reception The film is received with mixed to positive reviews from critics. While it was praised for its costume design and concept, the film was criticized for being the blatant ripoff of Bionicle, despite El TV Kadsre refusing to sue Regal Group Network due to the partnership deal between them at the time. Neo-Shifters: The Beginning had a slightly better score on Rotten Tomatoes than ''Bionicle V: Web of Shadows. Accolades Cancelled sequel In 1991, Regal Group Network confirmed the possibility of the sequel of both the movie and the TV series entitled Web-Shifters, originally slated for 1996 release and commissioned for a script to the Technic Heroes writer Sung Gim. In 1995, it was announced the sequel was pushed to 1998. In January 1998, Regal Group Network announced the sequel was cancelled after Vlokfilm and Warner Bros. couldn't afford the monetary risk of producing it. Category:1985 Category:1985 films Category:Films Category:Fictional films Category:United States Category:New Zealand Category:Vlokozu Union Category:El Kadsre Category:American films Category:New Zealander films Category:El Kadsreian films Category:Films shot in El Kadsre Category:Vlokfilm Category:Warner Bros. Pictures Category:Fictional American films Category:1980s Category:1980s films